Jimmy Butler is playing nice but his true intentions are pretty evident.

Jimmy Butler’s suspension is over and is back with the Miami Heat but a trade still feels necessary and very much inevitable.

Jimmy Butler’s suspension is over and he’s now rejoined the Miami Heat. In two games, though, it’s been pretty clear that he still very much wants to be traded. While there was some hope in the fan base that Jimmy would embrace a fresh start, that didn’t exactly happen. It’s pretty clear that Jimmy has real issues with the front office and that relationship is probably at the point of no return.

In the two games Jimmy has played with the Heat since he’s been reinstated with the team, he looks uninterested and ready to move on. I’m not going to question his effort on the floor but when he’s on the bench, he looks like a player that is not having the most fun on the floor. And it would be fair to suggest that Jimmy hasn’t even been that productive when he’s been in the game in the past two games, averaging 13 points per game.

The Miami Heat have no other option than to trade Jimmy Butler

No matter how much the Heat want to say that they don’t feel forced to trade Jimmy, it’s pretty clear that the locker room needs a trade to happen. Having Jimmy in that locker room and practically being forced to play is only going to slowly drain the energy and feel-good out of this team. For as flawed as this roster may be, the last thing the head coach Erik Spoelstra, and the Heat need is for this dark cloud that is hovering around the team to start taking a toll on some of the younger players.

The argument could be made that this entire situation has already hurt Bam Adebayo, who has not looked like himself all season long. I’m not going to blame Jimmy for Bam’s regression but you can’t help but wonder if the sense of all this playing out was something that the All-Star big man already knew was coming.

With a couple of weeks remaining before the NBA Trade Deadline, the Heat has to feel the pressure of needing to trade Jimmy. Interestingly enough, that’s probably Jimmy’s hope. But if we remove ego from this entire situation, the Heat would probably benefit as much as Jimmy would from a trade.

There are times in the NBA where a team has to pay for its sins or mistakes. This is one of those times for the Heat. Miami has been one of the best-run franchises over the past three decades. However, it’s clear that they must pay for some of the big mistakes they’ve made over the past few years. There’s no more running away from them. With Jimmy, the Heat played with fire and got burned. It’s OK to admit it.